Automatic spreaders for bolts of fabric comprise, generally, a bedplate and a carriage equipped with means for carrying, spreading and cutting the fabric on the bedplate, in correspondence with the number of sections of the garment to be manufactured.
In the known arrangements, the spreading carriage has generally a bridge structure and stands or is movable to stand above the bedplate, so as to permit the production of a plurality of stacked layers of fabric as a result of the displacements of the carriage on the bedplate. The fabric then, generally in bolts, is loaded on a supporting means provided on the spreading carriage and is led onto the surface of the bedplate by guiding rollers provided on the carriage and with the assistance of gripping means for at least the edges of the fabric to be spread.
The structure of an automatic fabric spreader is already by itself considerably complex and it becomes even more so, if and when the bolt of fabric has to be rotated 180 degrees above the carriage. The carriage, in this case, has to be provided with a turret or castle-like support for the bolt capable of rotating about a vertical axis, in order to rotate the fabric and spread it also with surfaces opposite each other during the displacements of the carriage. The rotation of the castle or turret support is effected on a foot step basing, the presence of which requires in practice the need for deviating the routing of the fabric, as it leaves the bolt, beyond the foot step basing itself and, therefore, outside of the vertical plane passing through the axis of the bolt. Such an arrangement is quite undesirable, because it requires the presence of return rollers and laborious other operations of unthreading and rethreading of the fabric between the rollers each time the turret is being rotated.